[imagesource: Veli Nhlapo]

South Africans have grown so weary of the ANC, and its never-ending promises to root out corruption.

This week – round 5 845 of being “deeply troubled”, with “accountability” just around the corner, and so on.

Wouldn’t it just be so grand if we had an opposition party that offered a united, inclusive alternative, that #VoetsekANC voters and others could rally around at the next set of elections?

Instead, we have the EFF, whose leaders have flat out stolen from the poor to afford their Gucci lifestyles (it’s actually Louis Vuitton for Juju), and the DA.

Clean audits for DA-run municipalities are great, but time and time again, stories of a party being pulled in multiple directions, where leaders quit and spill the beans, hit the headlines.

The furore surrounding a certain party bigwig and her social media use may have died down, but it hasn’t gone away, either.

The latest infighting spilling into the public eye involves yesterday’s resignation of its Gauteng provincial leader, John Moodey, after 22 years of membership, with the Daily Maverick reporting below:

[He] told journalists that a culture of “trumped-up charges” and spurious disciplinary processes had taken root in the party.

He claimed that such disciplinary action was increasingly used to root out dissent and “purge” leaders in the party who have fallen out of favour with a central cabal consisting of federal council chair Helen Zille, interim leader John Steenhuisen and chosen allies.

Moodey said that when he “dared to put [his] hat in the ring” to contest the leadership of the party, he was slapped with disciplinary charges.

One of the more sensational charges relates to allegations that Moodey was involved in a conspiracy to frame another DA member, allegedly MP Mike Waters, “on charges of soliciting sex for jobs”.

It’s alleged that two junior councillors accused Waters of soliciting sex in exchange for political favours. Moodey claims that internal investigations have zeroed in on him, saying he put pressure on the councillors to come forward, rather than investigating the claims themselves.

Moodey went on to say that the DA was “captured” and he could no longer defend it in public, saying Zille’s tweets earlier this year had caused “irreparable harm to the DA brand and racial harmony in SA”.

He added that it is “a tragedy that in such an important time in our history, the present leadership just continues to follow her blindly”.

Read more on his statements here.

As for this “purge” business:

…Moodey’s central claim – that party disciplinary processes are being abused to “purge” individuals considered problematic or undesirable – is shared by several other senior DA figures.

“The purge is real,” one told Daily Maverick, adding that the charges being brought against individuals range from money laundering to bringing the party into disrepute through seemingly innocuous social media posts.

The DA’s federal legal commission chair, Glynnis Breytenbach, has rubbished many of Moodey’s claims, but the timing of his resignation is far from ideal, given that this weekend is the DA’s policy conference, which will be held online.

On this front, too, there is also some drama, with claims that discussions will be centred around three policies only – Values and Principles, Economic Justice, and Local Government – at the exclusion of topics like education and land:

One DA figure told Daily Maverick that the conference was likely to be a “non-event” aimed at “rubber-stamping” the policies prepared by Ngwenya and her team.

And while it has been suggested by pundits that the conference may offer clues as to the direction the October leadership election will take, party insiders joke wryly that the priority of attendees may be to get through proceedings “without being charged”.

Yes, those are certainly quips that point to a united party.

“One nation with one future”, but internally, party members pulling in different directions amidst allegations that dissenting voices are “purged” through spurious charges.

This is a party in the midst of an identity crisis, when it should be sitting pretty, watching the public backlash to the ruling party once again robbing the country blind.

As a voter who wants what is best for ALL South Africans, where do you go from here?

[source:dailymaverick]